Gavin Parent Teacher Conferences

We just had Gavin’s second parent teacher conference last week and it went really well.  The first one we had back in the fall was a bit of a shock to Ryan and I and didn’t quite go as well as we were expecting.  We discovered a few behavioral issues that Gavin was having in class and that he was rushing through his work and sometimes not even finishing it so he could get to the next activity which was free-choice/play time.  He was also behind on his reading (at a level Pre-A when they need to be at a D at the end of the year) and really behind on his site words.  I think Ryan and I were a little naïve and just assumed that since he’s always been a quick learner and did well in preschool that he would just pick up everything he needed to know at school and didn’t realize how much we also needed to work with him at home.  I think part of it was that in the past when we had tried to work on site words with him he would get frustrated really easily if he didn’t know and just quit trying so we kind of gave up and the other part was that he wasn’t putting in full effort at school to actually show his teacher what he knew since a lot of the words she had marked as not knowing he knew when we quizzed him.  So we got to have a little chat with Gavin about his behavior at school and started to really work with him on his site words.  It wasn’t a fun task for him so we just worked it into our routine that when we were waiting a few minutes for his bell to ring before school we would practice a new set of words in the car until he had them memorized.  I had to add some incentives to get him to really try and I think it helped that it was just part of our routine and we did it the same time every day because we found that it was pretty hard to get him to sit down at night and work on them when he knew his brother was off playing somewhere.

So needless to say we were a little nervous coming into the second round of conferences because we really didn’t know what to expect this time around but were hoping things would be better and thankfully it went really well.  All the work with site words and reading at home has really paid off and Gavin is now at a level C and right on track.  He is also doing much better with his writing and taking more time to do his work at school although there were still a few instances of him rushing and not finishing his work.  We also didn’t have any more behavioral issues and he is really excelling in math.  We never really practice math at home but he has always been interested in doing math and playing with or counting money.  During the conference his teacher had him do several math word problems where he could use blocks or his fingers to get to the answer and he just did them all really fast in his head.  We couldn’t believe it because two of them were pretty tricky.  He loves math and building so maybe we have a future engineer on our hands J.  We were thrilled with his progress, he continues to enjoy school and we were able to celebrate that night with a fun little treat!

Lincoln 18 Months

We had Lincoln’s 18 month check-up last week.  He’s still our little peanut but the doctor wasn’t concerned since he should be evening out right now and not really going up a ton in percentile and he also was just getting over being sick from the last week which didn’t help in the weight department. 

18 month stats: Height – 31.8 inches (33%), Weight – 22lbs (7%), Head – 48.5 (69%).

As mentioned above we’ve had a rough few months with Lincoln where we’ve had a few good days of sleep followed by either a period of teething or cold/sickness.  Two weeks ago was by far the worse and thankfully he is finally on the mend and back to his normal self but it all started on Sunday with him throwing up and then turned into a yucky cold and ear infection.  He was home all week from school and very miserable.  He refused to eat or drink much and only wanted to be held all day.  Ryan and I tried to take turns staying home with him and were both totally exhausted by the end of the week.  Wyatt and I ended up getting his cold and Ryan picked up some nasty stomach bug and was sick for most of the following week so we are very thankful to finally be back on the mend this week and ready for spring and no more colds/sickness.

We’ve also struggled with Lincoln teething and biting at school over the past few months.  It’s much better than it was back in December where we had a serious issue and thought he might get kicked out of daycare.  Then we went through a really good period with hardly any incidents and now he’s not as bad as he was but this week was pretty rough with one incident each day L.  We are definitely looking forward to the days where teething is no longer a problem and he can use his words to communicate vs. his teeth.  We thought it was rough with Gavin back in the day but turns out Lincoln is here to challenge us every step of the way.

I can hardly believe that he is 18 months already and he is really starting to act like such a big boy.  He loves reading books especially books with animals and loves playing with cars, the play food or anything his brothers are playing with.  When we were having a rough time getting him to eat when he was sick we decided to just give him a bowl of yogurt and let him feed himself since he wouldn’t eat from us and found out that he can actually use a spoon really well and does a much better job of eating and throwing less food on the ground if he can try and use a spoon or folk vs. just eating with his fingers.

Lincoln is such a silly boy and is always making me laugh.  If you tell him to smile he will look at you and give you the goofiest smile that will make you laugh each time .  He’s always making silly faces and is starting to really laugh when he sees or hears something funny. 

He seems like such a big boy but at the same time still seems like our little baby so it’s kind of crazy to think that in 3 months we will have another baby on our hands and he will be the big boy.  He loves playing in the babies room at school and always points at my stomach and says baby or points out babies if he sees them in books so hopefully that means he will welcome his new sibling once they finally arrive and be willing to share some of our attention :).

4 and 6 year check-ups

We had the boys yearly check-ups on the 20^th and it was pretty uneventful compared to last year J.  Both boys are growing like crazy and grew 3 inches over the past year.  Wyatt was very concerned about needing shots but he didn't have to get any and Gavin just needed a finger prick which he handled pretty well.  I've included their stats below.  We are also working on transiting Wyatt and Gavin into one room to make room for the baby coming and got their bunk bed put together over the weekend.  They slept together in it for the first time Sunday night and actually did really well.  Here’s to hoping it continues to go well and I’ll post pictures of their new shared room once we get a few more things put up.

Wyatt: Height – 41.8 inches (78%), Weight – 38 lbs 10 ozs (70%)

Gavin: Height – 48 inches (87%), Weight – 49 lbs 13 ozs (70%)

Happy 4th Birthday Wyatt

We had such a fun time celebrating Wyatt’s birthday over the weekend.  He had his first real birthday party with friends from school and he was so excited.  He has been counting down the days until his birthday since Christmas.  We celebrated his birthday at the little gym and it was a little chaotic but I think all the kids had a lot of fun.  I guess that’s too be expected when you have 20 kids and 17 of them are boys J. 

Afterwards we celebrated with family and had some yummy homemade pizza that my dad made and some cheesecake and ice cream. 

On Monday Wyatt officially turned 4 and has never been so excited to go to school.  He kept asking Ryan if they could leave already.  He was the kid of the week and brought bomb pops for his class to enjoy. 

Wyatt is such a sweet and silly boy and we just love him to pieces.  He loves to do puzzles, play with Gavin, run errands and get up early J.  He knows almost all of his letters and loves to try and keep up with his brother by trying to learn how to count to 100.  Below are his answers to the 20 questions we ask every year.  We look forward to seeing how he grows and matures over the next year. 

20 Questions – Wyatt 4 years old

1.      What is your favorite color? Gold

2.      What is your favorite toy? Puzzles

3.      What is your favorite fruit? Oranges

4.      What is your favorite tv show?  Super Why and Jake and the Neverland Pirates

5.      What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Mac n Cheese

6.      What is your favorite outfit? Ninja Turtle shirt

7.      What is your favorite game?  War

8.      What is your favorite snack? Cheez-Its

9.      What is your favorite animal? Lion

10.   What is your favorite song? Black Sheep

11.   What is your favorite book? Big book of bugs

12.   Who is your best friend?  Hunter from school

13.   What is your favorite cereal? Lucky Charms

14.   What is your favorite drink?  Lemonade

15.   What is your favorite thing to do outside? Go down slides

16.   What is your favorite holiday?  Halloween

17.   What do you like to take to bed with you at night?  Blankets and animals

18.   What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Eggs and donuts

19.   What do you want for dinner on your birthday?  Chicken patties

20.   What do you want to be when you grow up? Ninja Turtle

Inauguration

It was such an honor to be able to attend the inauguration this year (last time I was about ready to have Wyatt so we weren’t able to make the trip up for the special occasion).  My mom and the governor got sworn in for his 6^th and her 2^nd term a week ago and I was so excited to get to participate in the events and support my mom.  We are so proud of her and all that she has accomplished!! 

We got to attend the church ceremony Thursday night, the swearing in ceremony Friday morning and then the ball Friday evening.  Ryan and I both had such a fun time.  It’s so rare that we get an adult night out so it was so fun to get to spend some time alone with friends and family and really catch up since it seems that during most holidays we spend most of the time chasing after the little ones and making sure that they are behaving and don’t get a chance to have much conversation.  Below are some pictures from the events.